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Why we can't build global brands

The idiotas working on some heavy duty drilling next door (in the building next to ours) have been at it for the past twelve hours. For the moment there doesn't seem to be any signs of their work abating. Truth is, the whole of today we've been at the mercy of this eardrum shattering racket.

Now I ain't surprised they aren't stopping their drilling work. After all I've lived my life in a country where empathy is almost non-existent. Here its commonplace to have the people next door not care a whit about anyone else. It's therefore zero bother to them their racket's giving others hell for twelve hours.

As I said earlier, I'am not at all surprised this is happening. Here's two reasons why.

One, zero empathy has social sanction in India. If you are unlucky at birth, the caste based class system in India will ensure you scrape the bottom of an non-existent empathy barrel. Such an all pervasive social system has fostered a community that by default believes some people are beneath any consideration.

Two, the socialistic hell we endured as a nation till the nineties ensured prosperity passed us by, by miles. It was therefore only natural that a country filled with people struggling to survive pass up on empathy. Who gives a damn to empathy when all you are focused on is your own survival?

Our lack of empathy probably explains why in business we haven't been able to build a single global brand. Brands that overcome geographical barriers and make it big across nations require marketers high on empathy. To ensure a brand makes it in a new country its important for marketers behind the brand to shed their own skin and wriggle into a new one. That in turn needs a shift in focus from oneself to others. Tell you what, most Indians can't do that. The white man can. Which is why his burger, cola, sneaker and other such stuff sell all around the world.